The present exemplary embodiment relates generally to measuring color-to-color registration in a marking system with a marking engine that includes a plurality of different color separation stations. It finds particular application in conjunction with a multicolor xerographic printing system. However, it is to be appreciated that the present exemplary embodiment is also amenable to other types of marking systems, such as multicolor inkjet printing systems, multicolor copier systems, and multicolor multifunction marking systems.
Current color-to-color registration measurement and error correction algorithms, such as image-on-image (IOI) and real-time IOI control (RTIC), only consider a simple average shift in color-to-color misalignment (i.e., DC shift or zero (0) Hertz (Hz) shift). Given the current half-toning screen pattern on digital color printing presses, such as the iGen3 manufactured by Xerox Corporation of Norwalk, Conn., correction of color-to-color registration error using DC shifts may advertise approximately 85 micron color-to-color registration at the 95th percentile. The average color-to-color misregistration achieved by these systems using DC shift measurements may be approximately 40 microns. However, current half-toning patterns are limited in their ability to provide photo quality output due to use of these registration measurement and correction techniques that correct for color-to-color DC shifts. There are no current color-to-color registration measurement techniques that can achieve photo quality output for the current half-toning patterns better than 40 micron color-to-color registration.